“In the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place — and segregated schools are ‘inherently unequal.’ ”

These are the words that ring out from the unanimous decision authored by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, issued 65 years ago today, finding that our nation’s children were receiving vastly unequal educations based solely on the color of their skin.

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The court recognized that before they were old enough to even realize it, many students of color were being robbed of the experiences in school that created a pathway to opportunity and success as adults. They were beginning participation in society at a disadvantage, one that was embedded in an institution — public school — that was supposed to be a springboard to the American Dream.

And the court ordered states and localities across the nation to correct this injustice by integrating their schools and serving all kids equally.

In the 65 years that have passed since then, I regret to say, we have not fulfilled that mandate.

A New York City classroom ("Giancarli, Alfred Freelance, ")

I know this because for 30 of those years, I have been an educator. From San Francisco to Houston and now to New York City, I have seen ripples of the legacy of racism in American history — in housing policy, in economic policy, in educational policy — influence the lives of too many children.

I have seen kids stuck in poverty, black and brown kids, isolated from educational resources available to their peers and denied an equal shot at excellence. Attending schools with fewer Advanced Placement courses and more suspensions. Fewer college advisers, and more students in the school-to-prison pipeline. Lower test scores and graduation rates.

And just as I’ve seen how segregation shrinks opportunity, I’ve seen the benefits of integration. With integrated classrooms come higher test scores and lower dropout rates. Young people with better critical thinking skills, more able to interact with their peers and succeed in our diverse world.

Here in New York City, we are using the tools we have — and creating new ones — to deliver on the promise of integration, and to advance equity now for each of our 1.1 million students. This is the basis of the mayor’s Equity and Excellence agenda.

We are empowering school districts to create their own integration plans that address specific hurdles and dynamics of their neighborhoods. This has resulted in the start of transformation at schools in three of our most beautifully diverse but segregated school districts, Districts 1 and 3 in Manhattan and District 15 in Brooklyn.

We are working to make our early education classrooms — including our pioneering 3-K and Pre-K for All programs — more socio-economically and racially integrated.

And we are working to reimagine the ways in which middle schoolers are offered access to some of the most selective high schools in the city. We have proposed broadening the criteria for admission to the city’s eight Specialized High Schools, where only 10% of students attending are black or Hispanic in a citywide school population of which they comprise 70%.

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We are ensuring that algebra is a right for all eighth graders. That computer science and Advanced Placement classes aren’t for a select few. That no student is unable to attend college because the SAT was a barrier. This is already changing outcomes, and lives.

This is personal for me, as a man of color and the son of a sheet-metal worker and hairdresser who didn’t speak any English when I started school. A public school education was the single greatest gift I ever received, and one I am singularly focused on ensuring all our students receive.

And it’s because of what I hear from our students and our families. Every day, more of them guide us forward — passionately, powerfully, with concrete ideas for how we can better integrate our schools and serve New York City.

Sixty-five years ago, Justice Warren charged us all with ensuring a fair, equitable education for all our children. Today, the work continues, and we cannot rest until we succeed.